Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is planning to use smart glasses to help people track their nutrition. In a new patent filing spotted by research firm CB Insights, the Redmond-based tech titan revealed augmented reality glasses that can track when and what you eat. The wearable system uses augmented reality to make diet recommendations based on personal nutritional needs as well as product and restaurant reviews, CB Insights said in a blog.
The patent, awarded to the company on Tuesday, explains how mixed-reality glasses can be used to monitor sight, sound, location, temperature, and motion.
The glasses use sensors to “identify food in front of the wearer and analyze its nutritional content. Eyeball tracking helps the glasses understand which items the wearer is considering. Based on the wearer’s needs — including any special diets, calorie restrictions, allergies, or personal flavor preferences — an augmented reality display can steer wearers away from or toward certain foods,” CB Insights said in a blog post.
In addition to making food recommendations, the wearable system can also monitor the user’s caloric and nutritional intake. This is an interesting and important feature as tracking caloric intake has been a big challenge for current wearable fitness trackers including Fitbit.
Technology companies are betting on health-related products and are in a race to modernize the process of nutrition tracking, according to a report from CNBC. Currently, nutrition tracking requires manual input and “if smart technology could automate the process, it would provide much-needed transparency to users about the nutritional content of their meals,” the report said.
Per CB Insights, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) previously filed several patents related to nutrition and food, including an allergy awareness system and a system to analyze restaurant menus based on user preferences. In addition, Apple is also working to develop a system that uses RFID to track the calories in restaurant orders, according to CB Insights.
Meanwhile, shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) were closed up 0.15% on Tuesday. The stock is up over 11% so far this year.
